If you’ve heard someone on television talking about Latinos recently, there’s a good chance
it sounded something like this...
TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime,
they’re rapists.
But this problem extends beyond politics. Mainstream pop culture sees Latinos as, well,
a particular type.
I normally go for big guys, like a massive guy. Not like a little skinny guy.
These are my kids: Jose, Jose Junior, e Josefina.
Drag his ass in the tub.
What do you think?
So there’s a pattern to the way that we depict Latino characters. But what if we grossly
simplified other ethnic groups?
In the media, the misrepresentation of Latinos is rooted in very specific stereotypes…
ARTURO: Lazy... LIZ: Lazy.
ARTURO: … have a bunch of kids, uneducated, what else… violent, sexist.
This is Arturo Castro. You probably know him from the TV show Broad City.
Wow!
Broad City is a diverse show with dynamic characters, but when auditioning for other
roles, Arturo often encounters the same instructions over and over again.
ARTURO: You know, you spend a lot of time getting rid of your accent, but the first
thing they ask you for, usually, especially when I first started, was an accent, right?
One guy asked, like, “pretend, like you jumped over yesterday!” And I was like,
"What the…” LIZ: Jumped over, like the border? Oh…
ARTURO: The fence… LIZ: Oh God.
So today, Arturo is turning the tables.
Hi, I’m Liz. So nice to meet you.
We set up our own fake audition to find an actor with a certain exotic flare.
Hello! Steve.
Steve! Oh, yeah, you look like a Steve!
Arturo? I’m Ryan. Ryan. Oh yeah, you totally look like a Ryan.
I do look like a Ryan?
Look, it might not be the most traditional, but it’s certainly practical.
Wait, let me stop you. Very committed to the choice, I like that. I need it to be a little
more like... Right now, I feel a little like urban cool guy. I need it to be more… accent…
more of an accent, more American, you know.
Like Caucasian, you know?
I just want it to be a little whiter.
Whiter?
Yeah.
Caucasian, you know? Like, really round those vowels, you know.
Please forgive me. Like, Caucasian.
Oh, like I’m an annoying white woman.
Exactly!
It seems a little stereotypical…
But can we try it?
Yeah, I just we really need a white girl.
Like a white girl… OK.
Do you want more like a sorority girl? Yeah, let’s try that.
No way!
It’s not human. It’s not how we should be interacting.
Fantastic. Dude, I heard the whiteness. You know, if I wasn’t convinced you were white
before, I am convinced now.
Yes, it’s uncomfortable and forced.
Even whiter. Even whiter.
More? Keep going, keep going.
Let’s take it back, and really enjoy that “peruse,” like if we were at a country club, how would you say it?
You’d rather I step back and let you peruse
the bar looking for Mr. Right.
You’d rather I step back and let you peruse the bar looking for Mr. Right.
I get it. You’d rather I step back and let you peruse the bar.
I’m like transported to Caucasialand right now. You know?
And we’re totally fucking with you. Completely.
So we wanted to get a group of white people and be told to act whiter and what that would
look like. You had the best reaction.
I’ve never been told to act whiter before. So that was a first.
I know auditions in general are kind of, like, you’re not acting like a real person, but
I don’t think that’s an excuse to be shitty to somebody. And you’re like, “oh yeah,
lean into a stereotype,” or whatever.
When you’re an actor, you’re like, “OK, put the blinders up,” and just do whatever
they say, and go for it.
But the problem for Latino actors is not just that they’re misrepresented. They’re also underrepresented.
Hispanics and Latinos make up over 17% of the U.S population, making them the largest
ethnic minority group in the country. Yet despite that, Hispanics make up only 4.9%
of movie characters across the 100 top-grossing films of 2013.
Mainstream film has a long way to go. But TV is starting to see some positive change.
And some shows like Arturos’s new show Alternatino or Superstore are challenging stereotypes directly.
I need a volunteer to hand out samples of salsa. Amy, this is right up your alley.
Because I’m Latina?
No! It has nothing to do with race!
I teach kids at ALCs at impoverished neighborhoods in the Bronx and in Brooklyn, and what they
watch on TV and the videos that they do watch, it’s what they aspire to. Like, I never
saw anybody that I could aspire to growing up as a Latin kid in Guatemala. I never saw
anybody that looked like me on television. And if they did look like me, they were either
in the field or getting shot by Antonio Banderas. You know?
Latinos have just as many differences as they do similarities. It’s time that the industry
celebrates them.
Then maybe someone growing up of a certain ethnicity can be like, “Oh, that’s cool,
I can probably be just a normal guy with a good job and a good house and a good family.
If that’s what I wanna do.” But by putting people in boxes, then there’s not many options
available to kids, you know?”